A printed circuit board telephone jack connector that utilizes tombstone capacitors connected between each contact and a ground plane for bypassing noise and high frequency signals to ground is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,115. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,224 which suggests a similar modular printed circuit board jack that utilizes parallelepiped capacitors in a similar manner. Both of these connectors require an electrical grounding path connected to each capacitor of each contact, comprising a conductive cover member that is soldered to the ground of a printed circuit board.
With ever increasing signal transmission rates there is a need for modular communication connectors that have improved near end cross talk performance. Recently a new telecommunications systems bulletin specification titled "Additional Transmission Specifications for Unshielded Twisted-Pair Connecting Hardware" was issued by the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Electronic Industries Association "TIA/EIA" specifying three, increasing levels of performance Category 3, Category 4 and Category 5. Category 5 is the highest connector performance level characterized by acceptable performance at up to 100 MHz frequencies and 100 Mbps transmission rates.
Increasing performance requirements of modular communication connectors for high speed LAN applications establishes a need in the art for modular communication connectors that can be economically manufactured to achieve higher levels of performance in suppressing near end cross talk.